Fluorinated peroxides have been reported to be useful in a variety of areas of organic synthesis. Fluorinated peroxides manifest unique properties, which are attractive not just for fundamental, but also for applied chemistry. For example, this class of peroxides can be used as active radical initiators for the polymerization of halogenated olefins and as reagents for perfluoroalkylation of polymers and monomers. It has been reported that even polymeric hydrocarbon materials can be perfluorinated with fluorinated peroxides.
Fluorinated peroxides have commonly been prepared by the reaction of perfluoroacyl chlorides or anhydrides with hydrogen peroxide under basic aqueous conditions. This method suffers from the hydrolysis and loss of starting reagents (e.g., perfluoroacyl chlorides and/or anhydrides) as well as loss of hydrolyzable products (e.g., bis(perfluoroacyl) peroxides). The formation of salt by-products in this method is also undesirable.
Numerous attempts have been devoted to developing improved methods for preparing fluorinated peroxides. Despite the attempts, convenient methods for preparing fluorinated peroxides for laboratory and/or industrial applications are desired in the art.